New faces will greet students at revived St. Mary's School in Worcester

Wednesday

Aug 13, 2014 at 10:04 PMAug 13, 2014 at 10:11 PM

By Sara Schweiger TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER — Call it the little school that wasn't sure it could.

On Aug. 27, St. Mary's School will usher in a new year just months after its junior/senior high school was slated to close.

In November, the St. Mary's community learned that declining enrollment was forcing a closure of Grades 7-12 at the Vernon Hill institution. Several weeks later, then-headmaster the Rev. Thaddeus Stachura announced that thanks to many pledges of support, the school — which next year is set to celebrate its centennial — would remain fully open.

There to greet roughly 180 students on the first day of classes will be a new principal, Adam Cormier; a new elementary school dean, Cindy Ahearn; and a new pastor, the Rev. Richard Polek, who also serves as pastor of Our Lady of Czestochowa Church, which operates the school.

Mr. Cormier will serve as principal for both the elementary and the upper school — something that for years has been two separate positions.

"The schools were not in sync with each other," said Mr. Cormier, who previously taught religion and heads the school's drama and technology programs. "The role of the principal is to market, to fundraise, to budget for the entire complex. So now we're in lock step with one another."

Among Mr. Cormier's first tasks were to create a finance committee and to establish an advisory board, for which he is reaching out to business and education professionals, alumni and parents.

St. Mary's is seeking to raise $750,000: $450,000 through a local campaign and the rest through a two-phase gofundme.com campaign. So far, about $86,000 has been raised; money raised will provide money for scholarships and supplement the operating budget in lean years.

"We're looking to start a scholarship, because a lot of our families here are inner-city Worcester, low-income families."

Ms. Ahearn, who retired last year after 30 years as a teacher and principal in the Spencer public schools, said that the pre-K program, which is staffed by a certified teacher and an aide, has been expanded to include 3-year-olds. Also, parents will be able to choose how many days to send their children — at a reasonable cost, said Ms. Ahearn.

"Instead of just putting it out there, 'This is the tuition, $2,000-something,' we broke it down to 'under $25 a day,' and people started to say, 'Wow, I'm paying $50 (a day) for day care.' "

Also new this year: Before-school care will begin at 6:30 a.m. instead of 7, and after-school care will go until 5:45 instead of 5:15.

"I think it was not good having parents have to pick up by 5:15," Mr. Cormier said. "Most parents work until 5."

Mr. Cormier's son, Frankie Mandel, is entering his sophomore year at St. Mary's. He came to the school in seventh grade. He said he appreciates the sports — he plays soccer, baseball and basketball — and the teacher involvement.

"The teachers help you here," he said.

Lisa Prytko is co-chair of the Home and School Association, which is St. Mary's equivalent of a PTO. Ms. Prytko has five students at St. Mary's ranging from Grades 4 to 10.

She said her children all cried when they learned the school might close, but she told them, "We're gonna save it."

Ms. Prytko and her husband, Bob, were on the forefront of the Save St. Mary's Committee that was formed just after the closure announcement. That group's Facebook page has garnered close to 1,200 likes.

Ms. Ahearn noted that for some families, excitement is tempered with caution.

"They're happy but they're also nervous, thinking, 'Will we be able to stay open another year?'

"I think the announcement that it was closing last year and then suddenly opening again really did harm."

Mr. Cormier said that just weeks before the closure announcement, the school held one of its most successful open houses ever.

"And then they (families) heard the announcement a week later and then boom, we lost all this momentum."

However, Mr. Cormier said interest in the school has recently been strong.

"We're enrolling new students. We got a lot of phone calls this summer, people coming in to see the school, which usually doesn't happen."

"God is shining down on us," Ms. Prytko said. "Our little gem in Worcester is going to survive."

Contact Sara Schweiger by email at Sara.Schweiger@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @SschweigerTG